Tower Boy
by Darkford
Summary: Bo has spent the majority of his life in the tower. It was a place barred to all but the kindly principal. The School was his country, the Tower his city, the small space intended for a heater his home. But one day a girl comes among the masses of new students that come every year, and suddenly he's discovered and thrown into a spiraling whirlpool of adventures. On Hiatus.
1. Chapter 1

Bo felt the sweat drip down his face as he gripped onto the rope. His ears were bombarded by the sound of grinding gears, his heart heavy.

He just _had_ to go and decide he didn't need his climbing equipment today, didn't he?

It was his job, if you could call it that, to tend to the grinding gears. Though many thought the sound foreboding or otherwise unpleasant, Bo spent his years listening to them. Each gear spoke its own tale, spinning its own legend of toil and taking chances, no matter what it meant for its future.

It was what came with the job, to know what the Clockwork said. Like how a computer-specialist could read binary, except that clockwork had its own little ways of doing it.

And at the moment, it seemed, the clockwork was telling their attendant that he was very, very stupid.

Bo agreed.

Mustering energy he didn't think he had, Bo swung his legs to have his feet bend into the rings of woven hemp that served as lifelines for their caretaker. In a moment of bravery, he pushed off the third-largest gear with one palm, using his full body to lean into the force's swing. His other hand leaned out and grabbed the rope tightly, as it anticipated the force of gravity about to enact itself upon him.

His sigh of relief was brief, as a voice called out above him.

"Allo?" Called the masculine, slightly foreign alto. "Is Bo busy?"

"Not at all, sir!" Bo chirped as he made the climb up the rope to his caller. "Just got to get up there!"

A murmuring of positive assessment made its way to Bo's ear, and his shoulders habitually relaxed. letting his hands go numb to the rough hemp, he made quick work of climbing and was soon standing before his friend.

"What brings you here, Sir?" Bo asked the principal as he tested the rope gently, humming happily as he let it go.

He huffed good-naturedly. "I insist you say Alvaro."

"Sir Alvaro," Bo chuckled. "Has a nice ring to it. Anyways..." Bo made a questioning motion at the faltering sunlight. "What brings you at this time of day?"

"I want you to know that we have problem with the clock in the fourth first-grade classroom," He announced, checking something written hastily on a sticky note. "And the teacher of classroom desires it be functional tomorrow for class, as they are doing time-based science experiments." He scoffed. "Silly girl doesn't know kids prefer doing _interesting_ things."

"Let me guess," Bo said, scratching his chin. "Either she's brewed up a new failure or she's doing the solutes one again. I found that one rather boring."

"You guess correctly," he replied. "Something about sugar, though none get to taste it."

Bo and the principal shared a brief moment of agreement over how effective that would be. Then, with a curt nod, Bo said, "I will see to it that the clock works." A few self-explanatory glances later, the principal was off the school roof and Bo was back inside the Tower, working on a worn-out string that was causing the clock to stand still.

"It worries me that teaching nowdays seems to consist of things that are meant to be boring and boring things that are in no way as interesting as teachers seem to think they are," Bo considered as he oiled a complaining joint. "Woodwork and Firework would be far more interesting, and far more useful." He twisted it gently, pleased it worked once more, and gripped a few strings to monkey his way up to the indent that, to anyone outside of the tower, looked for all the world like the space made for a heating system.

Bo looked into his small home in the Tower. The school was his city, the Tower his neighborhood, the small indent his house. It felt like home, and that was enough for him. A blanket and a collection of pillows were strewn across a floor barely six times his size, and it occurred to him that it would be more spacious with a higher roof. Most of the walls were lined with small shelves he sneaked in over the years, but one lay clear. Sort of.

Pictures of all sizes and shapes lined this wall, reminding him of a life before the Tower. A small boy, barely older than three, playing among dark Spruces and Firs. The same boy, gripping a white, ghostly hand tightly, as if fearing something. The picture of a small, forgotten, ragged toy, sitting in a toybox without any purpose. Pictures haunted him, but it also eased him. Someone, once, had cared, and had given him freedom within the school, friendship with the principal. He was okay with secrets, because all secrets had reasons for being so.

He lay down on the blankets, looking up a pictures which lay constantly in his memory. His world faded, and he began to dream.

* * *

 _Rain pattered down on the rooftop, each dripping tap a drop in the bucket - but together, they made a thunderous clapping of rain upon pavement that none except the deaf could ignore. The city spread out in many directions, like an infinite train set had been given to an enthusiastic child, and the neon glow of the utopian society rose like an aura of light that emanated from the town, as if it were trying to touch the clouds with its glowing lances of energy._

 _Upon the darkest rooftop, staring out at the scene before him, was a man. This man was tall, over six feet tall, and his shadow stretched out across most of the roof. The man was strong, too - Bo could see visible bulges of muscle that stretched from the man's shoulders and calves._

 _"Pa?" Bo asked, hoping beyond hope that this was who he was looking for._

 _"Never been one," the man replied, turning to face the small, helpless child that stood on the rooftop with him. "but if you want, I can be."_

 _The man stepped forth. "I think I know where a little lost lad like yourself needs to go," he commented, hefting the child up onto a shoulder with one arm. "But first, kid, take a look. A real good look." The man strode to the edge of the railings that lined the rooftop and sat the boy down to look._

 _Ahead was a large building. Tall and imposing, it would have been far more menacing than it already was if its lights had been off. The man next to Bo pointed to a slightly larger window that looked out from near the very top._

 _Bo looked._

 _Inside, looking into the window, he saw a man. Not any ordinary man, but one he saw in newspapers, one he knew as he was spoken of in the murmurings of gossip._

 _"Don't be like that," The man told Bo. "Be someone who you would admire. You should just be someone that you would be happy to be. He isn't happy; he has to deal with press and being famous, and that's just the tip of the iceberg." He chuckled. "No, I prefer being exactly who I am. I'm happy traveling the rooftops and doing my day job in a factory. Others want more; I'm happy as I am. Learn what you need, do what you love, and you'll have everything you could effectively want."_

* * *

Ringing hit his ears like a ton of bricks. He panicked for a moment, remembering the clock he was supposed to fix, then let his shoulders relax as he remembered that he had indeed fixed them before he'd gone to sleep. He stretched, letting the crook in his back settle itself, and he swung up to the bell at the top of the tower.

The Tower was the school pride, and it was something that, while not very visible from the outside, was vital to the building. It was a clock tower, and in that sense, the main pillar holding up the rest of the building, what the place was built around. Its gears ran every clock in the school, creaking away day after day after day to keep up.

Bo was proud of those clocks. He had made those himself.

The only view of the tower an outsider could see was the bell. The Clock Tower bell, _that_ was famous. It rang without fail upon every hour and half-hour, and Bo worked tirelessly to keep it moving. Being who he was, nobody knew, but he was proud nonetheless.

Bo considered his situation for a few minutes as he checked each gear on his way up. He was invisible, unknown to most of the school, though rumours were spread of there being a mysterious being hidden deep within the clock tower.

Not far off the mark, but still a little out there.

Rescued from a life on the streets by a kindly professor, he was taken to this school and let roam within the clock tower. The professor eventually became the principal, but otherwise life moved on and Bo took what he could get. He liked life in the clock tower, and he would appreciate it staying that way.

He heard the familiar voice worm its way down the tower. "Bo! Please be haste!"

Bo hurried his pace to reach Alvaro quickly and made a show of leaping onto the roof next to the tower's bell with practiced skill. He looked up and met Alvaro's gaze.

"Bo, it is time of year again when new students arrive," Alvaro cautioned. "If you behave like student you can be visible for day." Bo's smile spoke volumes about what this thought meant to him.

As much as he loved his clock tower, sometimes a guy longed for gleaming sunshine.


	2. Chapter 2

The day was a big one. The school took in no more than fifty new students a year, and all came in a large bus that traveled for a whole day to reach the place. Students arrived in the early morning to an extravagant welcoming party, hosted by prominent students, including club leaders, hand-picked one the teachers chose, and even those chosen by important students to help out. It was a privilege to help set up for the welcomings, and many relished in the idea that they might someday be one of the lucky ones who got to help out.

Bo knew he couldn't help directly - it was too risky - but he often enjoyed putting things people had forgotten on tables set out among the springy grasses outside the school. He sat on the roof and watched as students rolled by in groups, pulling out tables and putting everything one could need on them - food, uniforms, leaflets, anything. He stretched, letting his bare feet kiss a slight wind, and lay back. He didn't much care that he was lying on a rooftop over what others would consider a very uncomfortable material; he was used to sleeping on floors, so it wasn't much different.

He glanced down and saw principal Alvaro giving him a slight signal to move out of sight, and Bo's heart skipped a beat. Finally! New students! He made a prodigious bound to the bell, and he quickly grabbed a large bronze pole, lying in wait.

This was a legend of the school that he upheld. Every time new students arrived, the bell would ring, whether it was time or not.

He heard the revving of engines in the distance, and moved to a comfortable position, readying his strike. The moment the school bus went over the school's boundaries, marked by a clearly defined forest, he let loose upon the bell in timed, measured strikes, letting the vibrations shake his very bones. He repeated the strikes a number of times until all the new students had piled out of the bus.

A number of students all began to murmur at once, and with the number of them it became louder than if someone had shouted. Bo chuckled to himself and decided to watch as students were introduced to important folk around the school and led to different stalls by their self-appointed partners. He noticed one group, however, that seemed not to really know what was going on.

Well, the Principal didn't say anything about talking to people, did he?

Bo leaped down the tower and took the rarely-used chute into the back gardens, spinning down and landing in a heap on the ground. He rushed away, glad no-one was there yet, and dashed for the front of the school, jumping a fence and running past a few stalls where new students had already begun to congregate. He slowed down to catch his breath as he approached the bus, trying to remain calm. He may have had the Principal to talk to, but this would be a breath of fresh air.

He blinked as he realised that the only person left was a young girl, who was standing there looking confused as the bus wheeled off for wherever it went. She stood there holding a small plant and looking briefly sad.

"Hello," Bo said, trying to be calm. "Are you lost?"

"Not really," She said, in far more confident a voice than her appearance claimed her possible of. "It's just... I only just got here, it's so confusing."

"I understand," Bo replied, smiling. "Want me to give you a tour?"

She seemed startled for a moment, and after a brief flicker of emotion her face set into a smile. "Sure."

Bo motioned for her to follow, and he headed for the doors. As he pulled a ring of keys from his pocket, he glanced at the Principal, who nodded approval. The girl seemed a bit confused again, but refrained from asking questions until they were inside the main hall.

"Who was that you were looking at?" She inquired seriously. "And do all the students have a set of keys like that?"

"The principal, and no, only me." Bo shot her a smile. "We're not supposed to go inside the school yet, but I have a few... duties that mean I'm allowed." She looked briefly confused, but she shook it off quickly and followed as fast as she could while not dropping her plant.

"What's up with the plant, by the way?" Bo asked, raising a curious eyebrow as they walked inside.

"His name is Creston, and he's staying by my side until I find an appropriate club room to put him in," She insisted. Bo discarded the idea that she was sane and accepted that as reality. "What's that over there?"

She was pointing towards a large pillar seemingly in the center of the school. "Oh," Bo replied, "That's the Clock Tower. The stairs around it lead up to the other two floors of the school."

"So that's the clock tower?" She repeated. "I was kind of expecting something more showy."

"It's the outside appearance from inside the school," Bo corrected. "The bell you heard is run by the clock tower once every half-hour, and it also runs every clock in the entire school. The inner circuitry is a nightmare." She considered for a moment before deciding that that was indeed impressive.

"Over there are the main classrooms," Bo continued, "and up on the next floor are some audience halls and the club rooms." She immediately began walking up the steps.

"There're a lot of clubs to choose from," Bo commented, running to catch up with her. "There's video club, music club, drama club... a few social justice ones focused on different things, they split like that after they decided that there were enough classrooms... a few others too, but other than the Newspaper, those are the ones new people generally choose."

"No gardening club? Or adventuring club?" she asked, disappointed.

"No," Bo admitted, walking ahead. "But there's no grade limit on creating a club, and there just happens to be one room with a patio. Follow me." He went up the stairs again, and she followed dubiously.

"Up here," he said after turning down another hallway. At the end of the hall was a lonely door that had a unique look, like something brand-new that had never been touched and instead was left to rot.

"This went untouched, the mirrored one over at the other end is used as a hospital space. Generally students don't come up here, but if someone puts a word in for you, you can be allowed." Bo stepped out of the way and pointed to the door.

"Go ahead."

She opened it.

"Wow."

The room itself was quite large, larger than the average classroom, and on one end a blackboard had been hung up on the wall. a long table was in the center, and comfortable chairs had been lined along each side. From the glass doors, light filtered in, the glow of the mid-morning sun illuminating the room. A large desk, presumably intended for whoever was in charge of the room, had a single old computer and a few nicknacks spread across it.

The girl was interested in something else. Running past the table and desk, she grabbed the doors and swung them open onto a very fancy patio. All around empty pots of all shapes and sizes were scattered around the edges, along with a few stray bags of gardening materials and a watering can, and a lone wooden rocking chair rocked gently in the wind in sync with the hanging pots.

"Alright!" She exclaimed, punching the air exuberantly. "From this day forward, this is the new site of the joint Gardening-Adventuring Club Of Awesome! Name in beta, of course. What do you think?" She turned around.

There was no-one there.

"Hello?"

* * *

A/N: I'm back from the dead guys!

I hope you enjoy this new chapter. I'm sorry for the wait. I currently have two other projects that have this one crowded out, but I'll try to update it more often!

Sorry this one is a bit short, but... that ending was too good.

Don't forget to review, all and any opinions are appreciated!


End file.
